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March 03rd 2008

Ghosts - another Nine Inch Nails album - got released. Now, I haven't listened to the 36 tracks yet, and after Year Zero and Y34r Z3r0 R313373d I'm a bit cautious regarding new stuff of NIN in the first place. But what I'm really excited about is the distribution model. NIN are completely independent now, there's no label pulling the strings, resulting in a lot of freedom and possibilities. There are several options to get "Ghosts" on the official website. Either you download the first nine tracks for free, or download the whole album and a 40 page PDF for five bucks, or purchase a 2CD-package for $10, a deluxe edition for $75 or the ultra-deluxe limited edition for $300. Or, and this is the most exciting option of them all, you can just download it via torrents. Hold on, isn't that illegal? Well, that's the fun part. "Ghosts" has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. If you still can't believe it, there's even an official torrent created by NIN themselves (although it only includes the first nine tracks). Also important to note: all MP3s are DRM-free 320kbit files.

No matter what you think of the music itself, the utilized distribution model is leading the way into a better world. Now imagine if everyone would release their products like that. Want to watch a movie? Go to the offical website and either download the free file with a resolution of 480p, or pay $7 for the 1080p version, or purchase some kind of deluxe ultra-shiny edition for $20-$30. We're not quite there yet, but the independent film The Man From Earth became a success only because of illegal downloads. Emerson Bixby, son of the movie's writer, even thanked the people for downloading the film, spreading the word, and finally increasing DVD sales and donations.

Some may think the whole thing wouldn't work. Why pay money for some movie which can be downloaded from any torrent site (or rapidshare or any other "abused" download network)? That's easy, because most people aren't quite fond of performing illegal actions (best example: the success of iTunes). The best result of such a business model would be that you download the movie, and if you like it, pay for it. If the movie's bad, nobody's gonna spend any money on it. That's probably one of the things that big film studios want to avoid...

What about games?

Take Mass Effect, for example. BioWare's action RPG is set for PC release on May 6th 2008. Imagine being able to visit the official website on the date of publish, and choose "download". Not a demo - the full game. Second option, pay $10 to support the game and maybe even get higher download speed. Another option would be the boxed edition for $25, with instruction booklet, and a map of the galaxy the size of a poster (and a high-speed download link for immediate access). And as a third option, the obligatory Collector's Edition for $60 with an art book, soundtrack CD, galaxy map, booklet, and one random poster.

Would it work? I believe so. People who're tight on budget but still want to support the game (because they enjoyed it!) should easily come up with $10 - and that's better than the $0 BioWare gets if somebody downloads it through torrents. Providing a free - and legal - download spreads the game, increases interest (if the game's good), which in the end brings more people to the website, which results in higher sales, which in the end tells BioWare to produce more gaming-goodness.

In general, developers are already shying away from the PC market because of the high pirating level. Maybe it's time for publishers and developers to realize that one of the reasons for such a high rate of piracy is because an increasing number of people have broadband connections. Somebody should take advantage of that.

Games on the Nintendo DS are pirated like the seas of the 14th century. According to ELSPA, "90 per cent of all DS users in North America are playing pirated games via the notorious R4 cartridge". Imagine Nintendo would react and open a website where you could download roms for the DS for free, or $5 to $15 each. Wouldn't that be heaven? Test the game, enjoy it, pay for it. Or, test the game, hate it, delete it. No harm done.

The current model of digital distribution is new and old already. For example, we have Valve's Steam, XBox Live Marketplace, direct2drive.com, Wii Shop - all of them digital, and yet still somehow connected to conservative market habits. CDs and DVDs will sooner or later fade away. Sony's BluRay may have won the format war against Toshiba's HD-DVD, but it has already lost against the internet.

So has everybody else who's trying to swim against the stream. Whenever I hear about a CEO whining about piracy and the obvious need for more ways to restrict the consumer, I can't help but think of old websites, that displayed a Javascript alert message upon right-clicking, telling me that the displayed content isn't available for download. Maybe deactivating Javascript should be made illegal.

January 19th 2008

Today I attended another writer's meeting with my cousin, in which we discussed several occurrences happening during the process of building up a story. I decided to share some of the information we've gathered.

Characters Acting for ThemselvesAfter a while your characters are so fleshed out and alive that they start making decisions on their own. For example, you want a character to threaten another fictive person, but refuses to, telling you that it would be, in fact, out of character. Or telling a character to go along with the rest of the group, but she tells you that she'd like to stay with her parents because they need her now.

Change in Style of WritingA few pages into the story you'll notice a slight or even a significant change in your style of writing, compared to the first few paragraphs. This is either because after a while you're really "getting into it", thus your style improves, or you're writing from a character's view and the character is more sophisticated and influences the words you're putting together. Notice that the world itself often represents a "character" as well, and the more you describe, the more you're influenced by your descriptions. If you reach a point where you're sure the style has changed, it's probably best to go back to the first few paragraphs and adjust the text to your newly acquired characteristics.

The EndKnowing where the story will end helps a great deal avoiding writer's block. The ending will vary depending on your character's decision, but without an end in sight it may occur that you write yourself in a corner and you will have to rewrite a few parts, or even give up on the whole project.

InspirationTo make a story more appealing you can try to incorporate everyday events. Even if you're writing in a medieval setting you can still write about a spider falling into boiling hot water (which in my case really happened right before my eyes). If you think about it, most rooms or places you write about are based off areas you're familiar with or which you have seen somewhere. I've been writing on a science-fiction story once until I realized that the house and the basement I had described were actually from the TV series Sliders. If you can use this real-life-inspiration intentionally, your stories will feel a lot more varied, alive and authentic - if correctly translated into context.

Different WorldsOne of the most interesting parts of writing is that the readers will never see your world as you do. Even describing every detail won't assure the exact same picture in the reader's head that you had in mind.

December 27th 2007

It seems to be a tradition, or rather a cliché, that at the end of a year people sit down for a few minutes, add up the past twelve months and look at the end results. Based on those results, resolutions are made for the new year. But twelve months won't do it in my case. Certain events around June 2007 have changed the course of my life quite a bit, and thus now I have to look back at the past five years, with 2007 being the end of an era.

2003 marked the beginning of something new. Two projects based on Halfquake Amen have started shortly after its release in September 2002: Personal Halfquake and the Halfquake Amen Comic. Initially I was filled with euphoria. However, I didn't know back then that I should've created those projects with an end in mind, as both projects were to consume a lot of my spare time for the next five years. While working on PHQ and HQA Comic updates, flash games and applications arose, sometimes out of desperation to refresh my mind a bit. Despite a lot of pressure there were even several attempts at the creation of a third installment of Halfquake, including some work on a few songs meant to be part of the HQS soundtrack - those turned out to be rather personal and later got released as a compilation called "Remains". All in all, for five years I've been constantly restless and living in the dark abyss I had created myself.

During 2003 and 2004 multiple updates for PHQ were wanted and needed, and I tried hard to continue the HQA Comic. Until I realized that I didn't throw out those updates for myself anymore, but for others. I had stopped listening to myself and just went through the motions - thinking up yet another PHQ feature and yet another HQA Comic.

In 2005 I started Antaran's Journal. I remember the moment very well. There was a blank screen in front of me, an open editor with a blinking text cursor, impatiently waiting for my fingers to work with it. In my head there was darkness, pollution, a large swamp drowning my mind, which was stretching out a hand covered in mud, trying to find something to help it climb out again. I knew that I just had to start something new. Something. Anything. I wrote three dots and the first few words.

I told myself to keep a regular update schedule of one entry per day, but I couldn't. One exception lead to the other. PHQ, the HQA Comic and the pressure of HQS were still around as well. Even though my mind had taken a deep breath, the swamp's level rose and rose.

2006 arrived quickly and showed me a different facet of life. For something I initially didn't want to do, I'm very glad now that I was forced to go through it. The same year saw the release of the game Turnament and the album Remains, both of which represented a much needed vent.

The development of PHQ ended in early 2007, the final entry of Antaran's Journal was written in April, and the HQA Comic was put to rest in July. Slowly the sky began to clear, the air was refreshed, my mind stabilized. And most importantly, I began to listen to myself once again.

In the past five years I have gained new experiences, acquired new skills, new instruments and material to work with. I have met a lot of people and made a bunch of new friends. I feel a lot more confident and motivated. I know who I am, what I need to do, what I want. I've made my plans for 2008. If all goes well, there should be three finished projects by the end of the year ahead.

Finishing three projects isn't the actual New Year's resolution though.